The Straits Times, Singapore, 9 February 2000

He hid Ecstasy pills under taxi mat

A YOUTH who tried to smuggle 50 Ecstasy tablets into Singapore under the rubber mat of a taxi was sentenced to jail and caning yesterday. The drugs, which Chua Aik Yong, 20, had bought in Johor Baru, were found when police at the Woodlands Checkpoint conducted a random check of the taxi he was travelling in at about 11.30 pm on Sept 17. A sample of his urine was also found to contain traces of amphetamine.

Chua pleaded guilty in a district court yesterday to importing a Class A controlled drug and to two other counts of taking drugs.

He was sentenced to 7 years' jail and five strokes of the cane in all.

Another drug importation charge was considered during sentencing.

The court heard that Chua had also been found to have taken drugs four months earlier.

That happened when police raided two chalets at East Coast Parkway Costa Sands Resort at about 12.30 am on May 12. The accused and 11 others were arrested and their urine samples tested.

Chua's urine had traces of amphetamine.

The 11 others are being dealt with separately.

Pleading for leniency, lawyer S.S. Dhillon, said his client had studied only up to Secondary 1.

He said Chua had bought the 50 Ecstasy tablets in Johor Baru for S$600 for his personal consumption.

He added that his client was remorseful.

The penalty for importing drugs ranges from five years' jail and five strokes of the cane to 30 years' jail and 15 strokes of the cane.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 12 February 2000

Man rapes girl after they sniff glue

An unemployed man is sentenced to 18 years' jail and the cane for tying up his friend's 21-year-old girlfriend and forcing her to have anal sex

By Alethea Lim

AN UNEMPLOYED man raped his friend's 21-year-old girlfriend and forced her to have anal sex after a glue-sniffing session last year.

Tan Lye Meng, 28, committed the offences a day after he was released on bail for threatening his estranged wife, the High Court heard yesterday. Tan pleaded guilty to raping the girl and forcing her to have anal sex at his flat in Block 121, Yuan Ching Road, on June 12. Before sentencing Tan, Justice M. P. H Rubin said that Tan had raped and sodomised his victim "for a few moments of gratification" and to satisfy his "animal instincts".

He then sentenced Tan to 18 years' jail and 22 strokes of the cane for the rape charge, and nine years' imprisonment for the other offence. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Toh Yung Cheong told the court that on Aug 12, the victim had called Tan's flat to speak to his brother, whom Tan said was not in.

The girl knew Tan and his brother through her boyfriend, who had been in the same secret society.

Thinking that Tan's brother would return to the flat, the victim decided to go there, carrying with her a can of glue.

She then sniffed glue with Tan in his uncle's bedroom.

Later that night, Tan persuaded the victim to stay with him by tempting her with a trip to a disco to meet a mutual friend.

But she fell asleep on a mattress in the room because she was tired.

When she awoke, she found herself naked and tied up with masking tape.

She screamed and struggled, but Tan hit her face repeatedly and taped her mouth with masking tape.

He then threatened her with a knife, saying in Hokkien: "Don't think that I do not dare to kill you."

Tan raped the girl and forced her to have anal sex before letting her go.

The victim told her parents about the incident, and Tan was arrested the next day. In mitigation, his lawyer, Mr Thomas Tham, said his client had been sent to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre three times.

Tan had also been sent to jail for eight months for criminal intimidation in 1998.

After the glue-sniffing session, the lawyer said, his client had lost control of himself and committed the offences.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 24 February 2000

Teen molester, 16, gets jail and cane

HE IS just 16, but that did not stop waiter Lim Lian Hock from molesting older women.

He attacked three women, aged between 27 and 41, mostly near his Queenstown home, between December and early this month.

He also attacked a 14-year-old girl in a lift, and threatened to stab her when she screamed and fought him off.

He was arrested by police on Feb 8, after he molested a 27-year-old woman by squeezing her breast. Her brother spotted him hiding on the 14th floor of a block of flats and called the police.

Earlier the same day, Lee had molested a 41-year-old Caucasian housewife, who was walking her baby in a pram, in Strathmore Avenue, where he lived.

Inspector Balbindar Singh, prosecuting, told the court that on Dec 3 last year, a 30-year-old woman was walking towards a bus stop along Alexandra Road at about 6.30 am, when Lee came from behind and pulled her dress, tearing it.

He then grabbed her. She shouted and struggled, but he squeezed her breasts. On Feb 3, a 14-year-old schoolgirl was returning home when she saw Lee behaving suspiciously at the void deck.

She got into the lift alone, but when it stopped on the second floor, Lee entered and pointed a knife at her.

She screamed. He tried to gag her with a piece of cloth and raised the knife as if to stab her, but she struggled.

Just then, the lift door closed, hitting him. He fled.

Yesterday, the unkempt teenager pleaded guilty to the four charges before District Judge Seng Kwang Boon, who sentenced him to a total of 37 months' jail and nine strokes of the cane.

The judge imposed the minimum 24 months and three strokes for causing wrongful restraint while molesting the 30-year-old administrative assistant.

For pressing or squeezing the breast of the two women, Lee was sentenced to nine months and three strokes on each of the two charges.

He was given four months for criminal intimidation.

Three of the sentences are to run consecutively. Pleading for leniency, Lee, who was unrepresented, said he realised his mistake.

Molest is punishable with up to two years' jail and a fine or caning. The maximum penalty for intimidation is seven years and a fine.